


Danganronpa / Love Live! AU Chapter 1

by STARRY_RlN



Series: The Killing Idol Festival [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Gen, Multi, Shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 20:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11298393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARRY_RlN/pseuds/STARRY_RlN
Summary: Exactly what it sounds like, the 18 girls of Love Live! and Love Live! Sunshine! put into a Danganronpa style killing game. By reading you accept that the characters you love will indeed die. But hey, at least you didn't have to write about it! Seriously though, it hurts me to write this but I wanted to anyways. I hope y'all enjoy my pain.I'll be posting new chapters as they're written so look forward to more!





	Danganronpa / Love Live! AU Chapter 1

**_CHAPTER 1_ **

**_The Killing Festival and a Parting Gift of Death_ **

 

It started when I woke up, the first mistake of many.

I was in a room I didn’t recognize, it looked like a standard hotel room, but there were no windows and there was a monitor and camera in the corner of the room. There was a foreboding air to it and it felt as if I was sitting in a graveyard. Having nothing else to do I sat up and exited the room.

I exited into a hallway with 20 doors, 9 on each side of the hall and two at the ends. I was on one of the ends and on the door across from mine I saw the name “Honoka Kousaka” with a picture of the leader of μ's, the idol group that inspired me to form my own. The door next to mine had the name of my best friend since childhood, You Watanabe. After reading the rest of the doors and the names on them I realized that the people who had rooms were the 18 members of μ's and Aqours combined. The door at the the end next to the doors of Eli Ayase and Dia Kurosawa’s rooms read “Common Area,” so I went in to see if I could find anyone else.

All 17 other girls seemed to be gathered already and the moment I opened the door they all turned to look at me. Unsurprisingly Dia and Ruby seemed out of their minds with amazement and I was right there alongside them, we may not have known where we were or what was going on but we were in the same room as the members of μ's without anything to distract us from getting to know each other better and generally fangirl over the meeting. Of course the first girl I walked over to was Honoka and I decided to try to start a conversation.

“Hi!, You’re Honoka Kousaka! You’re a huge inspiration to me, you’re the reason I created Aqours to try to be an idol like you!”

She replied in a much friendlier way than I expected, saying “I know you! You’re the leader of the group who won one of the more recent Love Lives! I saw your group's’ speech and it was really cool hearing the uncut story of Aqours and its formation! You got me really pumped up for the show!”

I didn’t know how to respond, my idol, my inspiration, my muse, had just said so many amazing things about everything I’d done to that point, it was more than I could have possibly hoped for when coming over to talk to her. My speechlessness was saved by You asking the question that everyone had but nobody knew the answer to.

“So… Does anyone know where we are?”

The room went silent. Nobody knew anything about the building they were in or how they had gotten there. There was an awkward moment in which nobody said anything, then the silence was broken, but not by the sound of someone’s voice, or someone moving around, it was an electronic beeping sound coming from the direction of the table at the front of the room. Everyone watched, not moving. Nobody knew what to expect, but nobody could have expected what was about to begin.

As we watched the table, the beeping grew louder and louder and it sounded like it was getting both higher and lower at the same time. Kanan was the first to snap to her senses and walk towards the table, and as she approached it, it blew forward, barely missing her head and hitting the ceiling, falling down between us. As the table was blown away we could now see what was causing the beeping, though it had now stopped. There was a small, plush looking bear, black on one half and white on the other. Everyone just stared at it, until Kotori said “It’s a bit cute, in a creepy sort of way”

“Creepy eh? Well I’ll show you what’s creepy”

It was surreal. Everyone seemed to have the same reaction, did the bear just talk? Before anyone had a chance to say anything else the bear began to talk again.

“So I bet you’re all wondering where you are? Or why you’re here? Or maybe how you’ll get out of here? Well I’m here to give you the answer some of these questions.”

It wasn’t making any sense, just talking about questions and answers that had yet to cross my mind but now they were there, where are we exactly? Why did I wake up in that room? Why can nobody remember what happened before waking up? It’s all so strange and we have yet to explore the building beyond the hallway and Common Area. My thoughts were cut off by the strange voice of the bear continuing what he had to say.

“So first things first, my name is Monokuma and I’m here to make sure you all have a wonderful time during your stay in this fine establishment. Since you’re already together it’ll make this way easier, as a commemorative gift to celebrate your decision to stay at this hotel, you all get the fancy little thing I like to call the Monobook, it contains all the info that will be important to you during your stay such as the rules, bios of the other residents, and all important bulletins that will be posted during your time. Now what say we go over the rules?”

“Wait wait wait hold on.” Nico was the one to cut in on him, and he looked over at her to hear what she had to say. “You said you’d answer questions but all you’re doing is making more, Hotel? Decision? We didn’t make a choice to come here we just woke up here, and you said you’d tell us how to get out of here, quit stalling and tell us what we’re here for.”

Monokuma sighed, as if he was expecting someone to question him like this.

“Well, you really did choose to be here, though you may not believe it, and your way out is in the rules, so without further interruptions, shall I begin to read them to you?”

Monokuma paused, as if he expected anyone to really speak out now. After waiting for an insufferably long time Nico shouted at him “Just go already,” and so he began.

“Rule 1: You will all live in the Hotel of Despair for the remainder of your foreseeable future.”

So there’s the answer to the first question of where are we. The Hotel of Despair, certainly not the most hospitable name

“Rule 2: Once a murder takes place, all surviving girls must participate in a Hotel trial”

Before he even finished what he was saying, everyone erupted in confusion. Murder? Why would any of us commit murder? The idea is absurd, there’s no way anyone here would be crazy enough to kill someone! Everyone seemed to have the same thought, Ruby held onto Dia and Maru moved in front of them, Hanayo got closer to Rin, You came over to stand by me, everything felt far more uneasy and the room’s atmosphere felt twenty times as heavy. Monokuma ignored all of this and continued reading.

“Rule 3: If the black-”

“Hold on a minute, you can’t seriously just move on like that! You just said that there were going to be murders! Nobody’s going to be killing anyone here! Nobody’s dumb enough to kill the friends we’ve had for so long or for them to kill the girls that inspired them to form their own group!” That was Nico’s second outburst and Monokuma was looking rather upset now.

“Listen here, I’m going to read these rules and the next verbal interruption like that is going to be considered violence against me and you may want to wait until we get to that rule so you’ll know the punishment.”

Nico looked as if she were about to speak again but caught herself and stepped back to listen to what he had to say, it was unlikely to hear her speak out again.

“Ahem, continuing where I had left off. Rule 3: If the blackened is exposed during the trial, she alone will be executed. Now just so we don’t need to have another outburst, I’ll explain what the blackened is. The blackened is the person who causes the death of another resident, if you aid in the killing or simply place the means and somebody else causes the death, then you will not be blackened.”

Monokuma looked around signaling that it was ok to ask questions about the rule at this time and Dia was the first to speak up. “So if the person who commits the murder is discovered then they’ll be killed by you?”

“Yeah, you can think of it like the death penalty but your punishment is immediate and there’s no final meal!”

His description somehow sounded worse than just saying the killer would be executed.

“Ok, onto the next rules, Rule 4: If the blackened is not exposed, all remaining girls will be executed. Rule 5: If the blackened survives the Hotel trial, they will have finished their stay and will be allowed to leave the Hotel.”

The next to speak was Umi, saying what Nico was probably too scared to say at this point, “So the only way to leave is to commit a murder and get away with it?”

“Exactly! See, now is that so hard an idea to understand, just kill your friends and you can go home! Simple.”

He sure did a good job making it sound simple, although it was a terrifying thought, we had to either live in his hotel forever or do something that would cause all of our friends and peers to die? It left an uneasy feeling in my stomach.

“Rule 6: The Killing Festival will continue until there are only three remaining residents”

Next was Riko, asking a meaningless question bound to get a meaningless response, “Why three?”

“Well why not? Two feels like it’s too small a number and four seems like too many, if there are four remaining and we end up with two versus the blackened in the trial then so be it, however this game will end with either one, two, or three people walking home.”

This gave me some hope and I felt awful for it, not everyone has to die for this to end, but does that mean I’ve already accepted that there are going to be people in this room who kill the others? It’s truly terrifying, the situation we’re in. The name of the hotel we’re in is making more and more sense as time goes on.

“Rule 7: ‘Nighttime’ lasts from 10p.m. until 6a.m. During this time the Cafeteria, Exercise room, and central hall will be off limits. Rule 8: Violence towards Monokuma is explicitly prohibited and is punishable by immediate execution.”

Nico suddenly sat up straighter, realizing how close she was to getting herself killed and everyone else became that much more careful of how close they were to Monokuma out of fear.

“Rule 9: Monokuma will never directly commit murder unless a rule has been broken, in which case the offender will be immediately punished. Rule 10: Your Monobooks are very important, please do not damage them as they will not be replaced. Rule 11: The Body Discovery Announcement will be played on every monitor within the Hotel should three or more people discover a body. This rule will only include the murderer if they are to return to the scene of the crime and another person knows.”

Kotori spoke to ask a rather simple but good question, “Will the announcement play on the Monobooks as well or only on the monitors in the corner of every room?”

“The announcement won’t play on your Monobooks as it is an issue caused by the other residents, not me. Rule 12: With minimal restrictions, residents are free to explore the Hotel at their leisure. Rule 13: Additional rules may be added at the discretion of Management, or as you may know it, me.”

He then stood up and passed everyone a Monobook. “Please turn your Monobooks on and be sure that it is your name and picture that appears, if you have the wrong book, please give it to the correct owner. With all that done, I bid you happy killings!”

And with that, he picked up the table, put it back, and when we looked under the table, he was nowhere to be seen.

Slowly people started to leave until You, Honoka, and I were the only ones left in the Commons room. Honoka was the first to speak up and break the silence we were left in.

“So why don’t we explore together? It’d be nice to see what the Hotel’s layout looks like!”

“I-I’m sorry, this is so much to take in, I think I’ll just go lay down until my mind stops throbbing like this.” What You said then seemed really out of character, she seemed like the type to just charge ahead and not get held down by all this. Despite You’s strangeness I decided looking around together was better than going separately so I took Honoka up on her offer.

“Better to explore as a pair than alone, it’s good to stay with a buddy!”

“Yeah! I like you Chika, we should totally be friends!”

This lit me up, the girl I look up to so much and was so inspired by just asked to be my friend.

“Of course! We have so much in common! We’re both leaders of our groups and really optimistic, we’ll be a great pair!”

“Well then, shall we begin our exploration of the Hotel?”

“Yeah! Let’s check out that door down by our rooms since that’s kind of the only place to go, hehe...”

“Yeah, it’s strange that it was the only door that didn’t have a label, it was locked earlier but maybe Monokuma unlocked it after his spiel about the rules and everything in this hotel?”

“Wait it was locked? I never tried to open it so I didn’t realize”

“Haha, you’re funny Chika, how could you just not open the door right next to your room first, doesn’t it make sense to try that before going down the entire hall?”

“Well I saw your name and You’s name on the doors next to mine so I went down the hall to see if it was really all 18 members of both μ's and Aqours and kinda ended up just going into the Commons Room since I ended up right in front of it”

“Huh, that makes sense, well let’s go, I’m sure if it were still locked someone would’ve come back in here! I guess we can go find out what this place looks like.”

“Yeah, I wonder what everyone’s found so far.”

With that we set off down the hall hand in hand and pushed the door open, the first thing we saw was surprisingly helpful.

Yoshiko was standing in front of it and was staring pretty intensely, without looking away from it she told us the obvious. “It’s a map of the Hotel.”

“Um, Yoshiko, what are you looking at on there? If there’s a room you’re interested in why not just go there?”

“No Chika, that’s not it, there’s just an issue I have with this map…” Yoshiko then pulled out a sharpie, crossed off her name on the map and wrote “Yohane” in its place. Then out of nowhere we heard a voice.

“Hey, that’s vandalism, what are you doing!” Monokuma was suddenly to our left, as if he’d just appeared there.

“You put the wrong name on the map so I fixed it!” 

“Grrr, next time you have an issue with the map just tell me and I’ll change it, I’m guessing you did the same to your nameplate on your door? Well I’ll change that too, but the name in your bio in everyone’s Monobooks is staying the same.”

“Deal.”

Yoshiko walked back down the hall to her room and closed the door to the hall behind herself, when we looked up Monokuma was gone again.

“So is she always like this?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of her thing, she thinks she’s a devil or something, I think it’s cute.”

“Yeah, she seems nice for a devil, hehe!”

We decided to go into the first door we came across, which according to the map was the Cafeteria. Inside we found Rin, Hanayo, and Hanamaru eating their hearts out.

“Kayo-chin! This ramen is actually really good! I never knew prepackaged ramen could taste like this!”

“R-Rin, there’s a super cool rice cooker in there, my rice is so fluffy, it’s so good!”

Honoka ran up to them, nearly crashing into Hanayo and screamed almost right in her face, “WAIT HOLD UP WHERE’D YOU GET THAT, IS THERE BREAD!”

Hanayo covered her ears, not expecting Honoka to suddenly scream like she did. “H-Honoka! T-There’s no need to scream, that hurt, I’ll go get you some of the bread, just wait here, ok?”

Honoka started drooling in anticipation while Hanamaru came over and tapped on my shoulder, without stopping eating she handed me a Tangerine and after swallowing told me “Eat it. it’ll help with the stress of all this”

“Thanks Maru! What’re you eating?”

“It’s a type of dough that’s been deep fried and glazed with cinnamon zura, Mari said it’s a popular treat in American fairs, want a bite?”

“That sounds, really bad for you, don’t eat too much of it, maybe have something sweeter afterwards just to make sure you balance what you eat, ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, hey, have you seen Yoshiko?”

“She should be in either her room or the Commons Area, I didn’t see which she ended up going to.”

“Thank’s Chika! I’m gonna have her try it, maybe she’ll like it zura!”

Pana came back out of the kitchen with some bread for Honoka.

“H-Here Honoka, I found the bread!”

“BREAD!”

“W-wah! Calm down Honoka, there’s plenty, you can have as much as you want, someone help!”

Rin started pulling on Honoka to get her to let go of Hanayo “Honoka, let Kayo-chin go, she’s giving you the bread! Heel, heel!”

“Yosh! Bread acquired! I’ll save it for later in my bread pocket.”

Honoka put the bread in her pocket, she seriously has a bread pocket, a pocket for bread, this is my inspiration, I’ve never been more proud.

“Ok Chika, let’s go on to the next room!”

“Well according to the map that’s the baths, maybe we should go towards the end so when we’re done we can relax in there?”

“Good idea, in that case let’s check out the exercise room!”

Inside the Exercise room we found Kanan talking to Umi and Eli about different training regimens.

“I usually run from 4 to 6 in the mornings before coming home to help set up the shop for the day, then at night I lift some weights, you need to keep your muscles strong to carry around all those oxygen tanks after all!”

“H-Harasho… That’s a lot of exercise, plus you’re working all day, don’t you get tired from it all?

“Not at all, anything can become natural if you do it enough, I just kept waking up earlier and running longer until I got to the point I’m at now, you two must have pretty intense regimens too with how good your bodies look?”

“Well, we tried to set up a better regimen during a group outing in the mountains but everyone kind of ignored it, we still only really run up and down stairs for the most part, twice a day on weekdays, once on weekends then we also practice dancing afterwards, but usually Honoka ends up giving up early and it gets sort of annoying sometimes”

“So you think I’m annoying-”

“AGH, WHEN DID YOU GET THERE DON’T SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE THAT”

“Hehe, you can be so cute when you’re flustered Umi, so what are we talking about here?”

“Well, I was thinking maybe you could join me for one of my runs? Does tomorrow sound good to you all? There’s not much of anywhere else to run so I was thinking we could do laps around the courtyard, Chika probably won’t be able to handle it but I’m sure you could.”

“Hey, Kanan! You may be right but that doesn’t make it any nicer!”

“Hehehe, sorry Chika, it was too good a shot not to take!”

“Hmmn, fine, I’ll let it slide, but next time you give me food it better not be fish!”

“Hehehe, ok, ok, I’ll give you something a bit better next time, deal?”

“Fine, deal, but it has to get my approval and it has to be an actual treat! Don’t just give me tangerines and call it good!”

“Alright, alright, so is that all settled? Tomorrow morning at 4a.m. the four of us can meet in the Courtyard for some extra training.”

“Well we’re looking around the Hotel so when we find Kotori I’ll tell her that she can come join us too if she wants, are you three ok with her coming along?”

“Honoka, I think the real question is are we ok with you, are you sure you can run for 2 hours? Are you sure you’ll even be there on time?”

“Heyyyyy~ Umiiii~ Don’t be so mean, have some faith in your friend!”

“Ok, well, I’ll see you around, I’m gonna go check on Nozomi, she said she was going to check something in her room so I feel like she may need some supervision.”

“I guess we’ll go too, and Kanan, be nicer to me or I’ll tell Mari you were checking out other girls’ bodies, hehe!”

We left with Kanan begging me not to tell Mari but there’s no way I would, Kanan would never hear the end of it from Mari if I did and I couldn’t find it in my heart to subject her to that.

As we turned into the other hall it was apparent that not many people went down this hall, the doors to the Closet, Garbage, Storage, and Laundry rooms were all locked and we didn’t dare try to open the door to Management which left the only room in that hall to check as the Library, the only person inside was Maki, she had a stack of books next to her and when we came in she looked up, saw Honoka, and told her to leave before she got annoyed.

“But I’m not gonna annoy you!”

“You already are, let me read in peace Honoka.”

“I feel like if Nico were here it’d be a different story.”

“Honoka, out.”

“Hmmmm. Fine. Let’s go Chika.”

“Wait no, Honoka, I told you to go but not Chika, come here.”

“Huh? No fair! Why does she get to stay!”

“Because she hasn’t annoyed me yet, I wanted to see if I’d be able to talk to her about anything that none of you are good at talking about.”

“Fine, I’ll wait outside for you Chika, I’ll see if I can get Monokuma to open the other doors for us.”

Honoka left and started calling out to Monokuma.

“Insufferable, all I wanted was some quiet, well, what do you think of books Chika?”

“I’m not much one for reading but if you want someone who’s into finer literature you should talk to Hanamaru! She may seem like a bit of a dork and an idiot on the outside but she’s really into reading, she lives in a temple and didn’t have any electric appliances so she’s a bit technologically inept but she’s had all the time in the world to read and I’m sure she’d love to have a book buddy!”

“Hmm, thanks for the heads up Chika, do you know where she is? I want to see if she can recommend anything in this Library to me.”

“Yeah, she should be in either Yoshiko’s room or the Common Area, if not then check the Cafeteria, she’s a stress eater, and if she offers you food it’s probably best not to accept it.”

“Ok, you’re not half bad Chika, I’ll see you around.”

Maki left the room just as Honoka came back to the door and came in with a massive smile on her face

“What, did you make her hate you too?”

“No, I just told her someone she could talk to about books, so what’s got you so happy?”

“I got another room open, I got Monokuma to let us into the Closet and Storage room, there are tons of stage outfits in the closet and the storage room is full of random stuff like duct tape and irons!”

“Anything else cool in there?”

“Not really, just a lot of miscellaneous stuff with no obvious purpose…”

“It’s ok, just having more rooms to look around in is nice.”

“Thanks Chika! Wanna got check the last two rooms?”

We left the library and went to the Stage next and there we found Nico doing a solo performance for Dia and Ruby. Dia and Ruby are staring, almost entranced as Nico sings and dances for them and when she finishes they clap for so long even my hands start to hurt without even doing anything.

“Hey! You’re late for my performance! You missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the world’s number one idol performing solo, live on stage!”

“Hehehe, sorry Nico, we were busy talking to everyone else, also wait, is that like, your daughter with Maki or something?”

“H-Honoka! Don’t talk about that, there’s a child!”

“I-I’m actually the same age as Maki…”

“It’s ok Ruby, they just said you’re as cute as Nico and Maki combined, it’s a pretty big compliment coming from the leader of μ's herself!”

“R-Really sis? Am I that cute?”

“Of course you are you little cutie pie!”

“WAIT YOU HAVE TWO KIDS?”   
“Honoka! I don’t have any kids! Maki and I haven’t had any kids, please stop!”

“Hmm, you sure?”

“That’s it Honoka, you’re banned from my next show which is right now, get out”

Nico pushed us out of the Stage room and went back to performing for Ruby and Dia.

“Welp, only one room left, the only ones we haven’t seen are Riko, Kotori, and Mari, do you think they’re all in the courtyard?

“Probably, let’s go!”

We came into the courtyard and it was absolutely beautiful, the sakura were in bloom, there were beautiful flowers everywhere, and there was a wide stone path around the center flowerbed which contained several absolutely stunning types of flowers. Riko and Kotori were talking on a bench but Mari was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey! Kotori! This place is beautiful, all the flowers, I can’t believe this is interior!”

“Yeah, it’s breathtaking, all the flora makes you just want to curl up and take a nap! Riko was telling me about how she wants to paint a portrait of me with this yard as the backdrop.”

“That would be so pretty! Oh! Kotori! Tomorrow Kanan decided that you, me, her, Umi, and Eli are gonna meet here at 4a.m. to run until 6 for some extra training! Wanna come?”

“Sure, it sounds like it could be good!”

“Ok, see you tomorrow then!”

“Hey, have either of you seen Mari? She sort of disappeared after we all left the Commons Area.”

Riko’s question surprised us since we were about to ask the same thing, has nobody really seen Mari at all? Where could she be? What was she doing? There was no way she could seriously think about what Monokuma was saying, that we could leave if we killed someone? There was no way she would do something like that, could there? Or maybe she’s doing something totally normal and this is all part of Monokuma’s plan. What if he just wants us to think that? What if he’s trying to cause distrust so that we wouldn’t feel as bad about killing someone else? No, there was no way she could be thinking something like that, we need to have faith in each other and just live in this Hotel of Despair until we find another way out, it’s simple.

“Wait so you haven’t seen her either? We were about to ask the same thing, we’ve checked every room and Mari wasn’t in any of them, all of our bedrooms were open and unoccupied when we walked down the hall too, except You’s, who we saw go in, and Nozomi’s, but she should’ve been the only one there since she left after Mari and I never saw them talk to each other…”

“I’m not sure where she could be, maybe she walked by while you were in one of the other rooms like the Cafeteria? You should go back and check her room, maybe she went back there.”

“Ok, we will, thank’s Riko, good luck on your painting!”

“Thanks Chika, I just hope we can get through this well enough.”

Riko’s parting words didn’t help the thoughts I was having moments before, maybe we really are having trouble trusting each other, and maybe I’m guilty of that mistrust as well, even if I don’t realize. I’ll have to be sure to watch out for any slight changes in my friends’ behaviour just so I can be sure to prevent any murders from happening.

“Wait, Honoka, if you’re going back to your rooms can I come too? I’m a bit hungry and we haven’t had a chance to just sit down and talk since waking up, maybe Umi can come too?”

“Oh that’s a good idea! Besides, Chika probably wants to talk to You, she said she wanted to take some time alone to think things over about our situation so she may want a shoulder to lean on or maybe just a friend she can trust to talk about it all with.”

“Y-Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea.” In all honesty I had completely forgotten about You’s breakdown, she really was acting strangely, I really should talk to her.

On our way back from the Courtyard we looked into the Exercise Room and saw Kanan trying to get Umi to arm wrestle her.

“C’mon! I’m sure you’ll be able to hold your own at least. With how much training you had on that wheel that Dia showed us, µ's must be really strong! I wanna see how I do against someone who does that much every weekend like Dia said!”

“Oh thank god, Kotori, Honoka, please save me, somehow she’s even crazier than Nozomi, why are the pure ones always the weird ones.”

“Wait huh? We don’t really have that strong of a regimen, just jogging up and down stairs to work on our stamina. Well Kanan, if you want someone strong to race or wrestle or whatever else you want to do you should talk to Rin, she may be small and seem a bit weird but she’s definitely the strongest member of µ's by far!”

“Ok, where is she? I have an urge to just let this stress out somehow so I wanted to try something where I can try to push myself as hard as I can!”

“She’s probably still in the Cafeteria eating ramen, her stomach never ends when ramen’s involved.”

“Thanks you two, I’ll go see what the strongest member of µ's can do!”

Kanan runs out and Umi seems about ready to collapse just as she turns around the corner and out of sight. “Thanks you two, you’re lifesavers, so what’d you come back for? I’m guessing Kotori said she’d be joining us?”

“Yup, I’ll be there! But what we came back for was actually to ask if you wanted to come relax and have a chat in Honoka’s room, so do you?”

“I was thinking a bath to relax but that works too I guess, I’m a bit hungry anyways and Monokuma put a sign up saying no food allowed after Mari tried to cook stew in the hot tub…”

“Oh, so that’s where she was, we never found her anywhere else so we were getting worried, if you think Kanan was weird then you should get to know Mari better. She’s nonstop weirdness.”

“I’m so sorry you have to deal with these people on a daily basis, Chika, I have no idea how you do it.”

“Hehehe, it’s not that bad, you get used to them!”

Suddenly Eli comes in looking a bit nervous, but she tries to compose herself before speaking

“Hey, where’s Kanan?”

“She just went to arm wrestle Rin, why?”

“Well can you pass a message on for me? I’m gunna have to drop out of our meeting tomorrow, Nozomi wants me to spend the night with her, you can leave off that last bit though.”

“Why does she want you to stay with her? Is she scared?”

“Chika, so pure, I envy you, let’s just say that there’s not much of a contest when it comes to who the gayest pair in this building are”

“Of course there isn’t, it’s clearly Kanan and Mari”

“No, it’s Nozomi and Eli, they are married and Nozomi consistently likes to rub Eli’s chest.”

“Well the only reason Kanan and Mari aren’t Married yet is because Kanan hasn’t gotten the guts to ask Mari and Mari does the same to Kanan, if you asked her for a list of her favourite things her top 3 would probably be Kanan, Kanan’s chest, and Kanan’s beauty.”

“W-Wait, Honoka! Don’t go around telling everyone that! It’s embarrassing!”

“Hehehe, come on Eli, you can’t really think that nobody’s seen the leaked Wedding footage. It spread like wildfire, you don’t wear the rings to hide it but you can’t deny the proof!”

“Ugggh, I’m going back to Nozomi’s room, just pass on the message to Kanan please?”

“Yeah, we will, we will, don’t worry Eli.”

Eli left and the rest of us parted ways at the Cafeteria, I peeked in to see how the arm wrestle was going and it seemed like it was still at a stalemate but Rin seemed to just be having fun rather than trying to win.

I walked past my own room and saw that You’s was labeled unlocked and occupied, as if she expected someone. I wasn’t sure if I should expect to see anyone else when I went in but I knocked anyways. You’s voice choked a bit as she called for me to come in and I opened the door.

She was sitting on her bed and had clearly been crying, she looked happy to see me though and tried to smile but she failed horribly.

“What’s wrong You?”

“N-Nothing, nothing, I’m just happy you came is all.”

“You’ve never been a good liar You, were you thinking about the game?”

“N-No, I… Ok, you’ve got me Chika, Can I trust you to not talk about this conversation after you leave? Who am I kidding of course I can, you’re my best friend, you wouldn’t do something like that to me.”

“Of course, I’ll listen and never speak a word about it again, so what’s been on your mind?”

“I don’t know honestly, there are just so many ways things can go wrong, i don’t want anyone to get hurt, I don’t want you to get hurt, much less die, I’m not sure I could handle the loss of any loved ones at this point, you’re all too important to me. I’m just not sure what to do, I don’t care if I don’t make it, I just want you to get through this, Chika please, if you ever need to get out don’t hesitate to kill me, I will let you, I will help you create a killing they’ll never figure out is you, I will do anything to make sure you survive this, please, I want you to survive! I want you to make it out of this place!”

“W-Wait, You! I couldn’t kill you, I want you to survive too! I won’t let anyone die, I’ll figure out a way for us to all make it out, no matter what it takes I will make sure nobody dies, ok?”

“But Chika, you can’t do that, you just can’t, it’s that simple, you’re an inspiration to many but you can’t stop people from getting too caught up in a moment, you can’t stop someone from snapping and not thinking, you, you…” You started to choke more and more, until she broke down in tears. Not knowing what else to do or say I held her closer in hopes she’d calm down. It still felt odd to me, like the roles should be reversed, I should be the one breaking down at the thought of my friends dying and she should be the one comforting me. Maybe I had faith in everyone to live together, maybe I didn’t believe Monokuma when he said the only way out was to kill someone. Whatever it was, it was wishful thinking, the only way to escape was murder, the only way to be sure you wouldn’t die next was to kill someone else, that was how life worked in the Hotel of Despair.

That’s when I felt it. A cold feeling in my back. And the only thing that seemed to exist were You’s words that followed, sounding almost as cold as what I felt, but with far more tears.

“I’ sorry Chika, I can’t handle this, I miss my Father, I miss everyone else in Uchiura, I miss everyone in Numazu, I miss everything. But above all, I’m going to miss you, I love you, so I’m letting you go...”

It was confusing, I heard the words but they didn’t make sense, what was she saying? And why did everything seem to be fading? What was going on? The last thing I heard before everything went black was You’s voice.

“Oh no. What did **** why ** This **** real *** CHIKA!”

Then everything was dark. What had happened? Why did it make my heart ache? I could still feel that cold feeling in my back, I refused to let go of it until I figure out what it was but I couldn’t get myself to move. My body wouldn’t move.

Eventually in the blackness I felt the cold feeling on my back disappear. How could it go now? It hadn’t even given me enough time to find out what it was, but it was almost immediately replaced by a different feeling, it was awful, like a sack of bricks placed on a broken leg. I wanted to scream but my body didn’t respond. I was forced to suffer but then a different cold feeling replaced it. This one felt more spread and less focused. Almost like ice. Was I laying on top of ice? That wouldn’t make any sense.

Maybe the best way to figure out what the feeling was, was by asking someone, so I tried to think about how to make the blackness go away.

“Hey, Mr. black void? I want to see my friends, can you let me see them?”

It was dumb, talking to a random black feeling, but it got fuzzier, I could see bits of light on the edge of my vision, and too my right was a figure, and I could feel more strongly. The pain, oh the pain was awful, the cold pressing like ice turned into a full on blizzard. The earlier cold feeling was back but it had spread, like a spider web of pain. There was also a new sticky feeling around where the pain was, closer to the center.

I tried to focus on the figure to my right, it has definitely a person. Maybe it was You and I had just passed out on her bed? It wouldn’t be too weird to pass out from the stress but that didn’t explain the pain or the coldness I felt in both my back and You’s voice.

I needed more, the image I had wasn’t clear enough and so I tried to talk to the void again.

“Mr. void, can you please let me see a bit more? I want to know who’s next to me, what’s going on.”

I couldn’t see much better but I could hear and feel. The feeling was awful. It didn’t feel so much as a stinging pain, more like a raging inferno, and the icy feeling was more like putting ice on your arm after covering it with salt, the ice burned. But I could feel my wrist being held and I was definitely on my stomach. What I heard on the other hand was another story, The first thing I heard was You’s voice. She was crying, saying she was sorry, asking me to come back to her. But I didn’t get any of it. Why was she crying? What did she do that she’d be sorry for? Why did she want me to come back? From where? Clearly I was right here next to her. I tried to ask her what was wrong but all that came out was a breath. I heard her screaming about how I breathed and how I was ok but I didn’t get what was so amazing, of course I was breathing, if I weren’t I’d be dead…

That thought was when it clicked. I was dying. That’s why she was sorry, that’s what the cold feeling on my back was. You had stabbed me. She was saying she was sorry for stabbing me. The cold feeling was the knife she had pushed into my back. The blackness was death, trying to take me away because of You’s mistakes. I was You’s payment. But she wanted a refund. She wanted me back and it seemed death was generous today. Or just plain sadistic. I wouldn’t let that happen though. I would come back. For You. For my friends. If I died everyone would know she was the one who did it. Then she would die too. I wouldn’t let her life be cut short like that. I tried again to talk to death, to convince him his kindness on that day would not go to waste.

“Death, I know You messed up, big time, but she’s been under a lot of stress, she wasn’t in her own mind, she’s hurting deeply, I’m sure you would gain so much more from letting me live since you would be able to collect much better souls than mine in this game that Monokuma made. If you let me live I’ll be sure to make this a much more fun game for you, I’ll find every killer so you can get a lot of deaths spread out from each other rather than a ton at once which would just wear you out. So let me wake up now, if anything happens again and we see each other 1 on 1 like this during the game then you can take me and put me wherever you want for wasting your time, put me in the lowest layer of hell, turn me into a bacteria living on a piece of krill, do whatever you want. Just let me come back this one time.”

After a short period of time the fuzziness grew stronger. I thought I messed up. I thought I was going to die. But suddenly, there was a blip. And everything went black.

This was a different blackness, I could feel and hear and smell everything, the other girls in the room were Kanan, Riko, Maki, and Nico. but before any of that had time to register I felt my eyes snap open and I was nearly blinded by the light. In front of me was You, in tears, and I saw Kanan and Riko crying too. Maki seemed slightly proud but at the same time happy, and Nico was telling Maki that she was amazing and deserved to become the head of her family's hospital.

“What’s going on?” my voice was oddly hoarse and my mouth felt dry. Then the pain started and I couldn’t hold back the screams. Maki had Kanan help put me on my back and she told me not to move.

“Chika I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry, I don’t know what came over me, I was stupid, I wasn’t thinking, I’d understand if you despise me now, anyone would, none of you are going to trust me, there’s no way for you to, I just tried to kill my best friend just to leave, I’m so so sorry-” You went on like that for a few minutes, crying. I waited for her to finish before saying just five words.

“I love you too, You”

She clearly lost her words and put her face on my chest, somehow crying harder than before. Then they started to explain everything I missed, apparently after I blacked out Hanamaru, Yoshiko, and Maki could hear You’s screaming since her door was still unlocked and wasn’t soundproof. Maki was the first to respond and ran halfway down the hall from Hanamaru’s room, bursting into You’s room. Her first emotions were obviously fear and shock, but then You screamed that I needed to get to the medicine room which Monokuma had opened when I was stabbed. Looking at my Monobook, there was an unread bulletin saying that the medicine room was unlocked at 6:34pm. Maki said that luckily the knife hadn’t hit anything important like the lungs and no operation was necessary, apparently You wasn’t very good at murder which was sort of calming to know. Maki said the only other person to come out of any of the rooms was Kotori, who was in Honoka’s room, after I told her that Honoka and Umi should have been there she said she probably just didn’t see Honoka or Umi behind her since her mind was racing so quickly trying to get me down here and think about all the procedures she would have to do on me. The next thing they told me was that a new rule was added to the Monobook, which was that only one person per patient in the medicine room would be allowed in the center hall at night, everyone agreed to have Maki stay since she had experience taking care of people from helping in her family’s hospital, but then Kanan claimed to spain her shoulder during her arm-wrestle with Rin and Nico said she twisted her ankle while performing for Dia and Ruby so the two of them as well as You and Riko were able to stay. Kanan said that she had dropped out of the extra training she was going to do with Umi, Honoka, and Kotori so that she could stay here and none of the other girls would be forced to leave. They said they took almost shifts staying in with me but You never left as far as anyone knew. They all assured me they had slept a fair amount on the beds in the room so that gave me one less thing to worry about. The entrance to the center hall was apparently blocked by metal shutters and there was no way to see or hear in or out according to Monokuma, not that it mattered, there wouldn’t be much going on in that hallway. After that recap was done I asked a question that soon turned into a curse.

“What time is it?”

“About 3:45, maybe I could still go join Honoka, Kotori, and Umi? One of you three would have to leave too though”

“I’ll go, Chika needs Maki’s care and I’m sure You doesn’t want to leave Chika’s side yet”

“Thanks Riko, Kanan, there’s extra jackets in the storage closet, look in there to grab one before calling for Monokuma, if you say you feel fine I’m sure he’ll let you out, you can trust Chika with me, enjoy your run.”

“No problem, I’m gonna leave one of those books you brought in to block the stutter in case I need to get in or you need to get out.”

“Good plan, see you in a couple hours if everything goes well”

Kanan and Riko left and I was left with You, Maki, and Nico, You kept crying but it was noticeably less intense than before. Nico volunteered to check if the Laundry room was open yet to wash my bloodstained clothes and it remained the only room yet to be unlocked.

Then, as Nico was about to leave to have another check of the storage room, everything became much more serious and real in the Hotel of Despair.

We heard a metallic noise as if the shutters were being forced open and Kanan ran in, looking mortified.

“The-the Courtyard, 4.a.m, body, too soon-”

And before we could figure out what she was saying, we heard a new sound. A sound that would become normal and signal an important event in the Killing Festival as Monokuma had named it the previous day.

“Ding. Ding. Ding. Dong.” Monokuma’s voice could then be heard saying the dreaded words. “A body has been discovered”

That was it. A simple message. But what it meant was so much. Someone was dead. Murdered by another girl in this building in cold blood. Nobody knew who was dead besides Kanan, the killer, and the other people who found them, and Kanan seemed to think it would be easier to show us than to explain. I got up ignoring the pain in my back, there was too much adrenaline to feel it. Kanan lifted the shutter and You held it up for me. We ran to the right and I heard some footsteps behind me accompanied by a handful of voices shouting “This way!” and “Over here, towards the south end of the hall!” I guess we assigned names for the other two halls while I was out. We came into the Courtyard and I saw a mess of colour. Blue, Gray, Orange. That’s what i saw. But one of the colours stood out as the clear focus of the moment. She was in the corner of the outer gardens of the Courtyard, on top of a pile of sunflowers, she was dead.

Honoka Kousaka, the girl who did so much for me, inspired me, and in her dying moments considered me a friend. She was dead. It was too much to believe, I was getting hysterical. I didn’t even look at the rest of her body, I knew it was her, she was dead, that’s all that mattered at the time, but she couldn’t be, right? She was fine, it was all a sick joke, nobody was really going to die, she’d be carried off by Maki and she’d come back, the same way I did. It was going to be fine, but nobody moved, they just looked. And I did too. What could you do? It was just so absurd to think anyone of us would kill anyone. But I remembered my deal with death. I would figure out who killed her so that they would be punished. I wouldn’t let anyone upset the peace we could potentially create, and so I looked at the rest of the scene.

The blue and gray I had seen were Umi and Kotori, having come to join Honoka in the early morning practice which had fallen to just them before Kanan decided to come back. Kotori was absolutely distraught. Her head was in her arms and she was on the ground, no matter how well she tried to muffle her sobs they were still very audible.

Umi was next to her, equally upset but able to hold her composure to honour her friend. She looked almost determined, It was clear she would be helpful in finding out who the culprit was this time.

Next was the body. Oh god the body. Honoka had her back against the wall with blood streaking down her face and matting her hair. There was nothing that seemed like an obvious weapon near her and there wasn’t anything that could be used as a form of identification. We were left to our own devices.

Next, Monokuma appeared. The last person I wanted to see at that moment but also probably the most helpful.

“Well howdy everyone, so we got our first wormfood, well at least 14 more of you are gonna end up like that so get used to it fellas! Here’s the first iteration of the Monokuma File to appear during the Killing Festival set up for you here in my Hotel of Despair!”

Suddenly there were 17 simultaneous beeps from the Monokuma Books excluding Honoka’s. Upon opening it there was a new message.

**Monokuma Special Bulletin**

Monokuma File #1

I opened the file and what I was met with contained some information that was useful and some that was painfully obvious.

“The victim was Honoka Kousaka.

The body was found in a patch of sunflowers in the Courtyard

Time of death: Approximately 2a.m.

Cause of death: Single blow to the head

Her death was instant”

It was short, simple, uninformative, but one thing stood out. She died at 2? They weren’t supposed to meet up until 4, why was she there so early? She certainly isn’t the type to show up early for something. I could tell that this was going to be important for the trial.

“So, any questions? No? We’ll see you folks when it’s time for the trial. I’ll announce when it’s about to start and you should all come to the Common Area when I do.”

With that, Monokuma left us to investigate. The first thing I did since I had already checked the body and scene was… Double over in pain, my adrenaline dropped and I felt all the pain from the wound in my back wash over me at once. It was unbearable and Maki quickly ran back to the medicine room to get painkillers for me which she hadn’t had enough time to think to give me and blamed herself for not thinking about it when Kanan left to get a jacket from storage. My survival became far less miraculous due to the death of someone else in the group and very few told me they were happy I lived but I couldn’t blame them, who could be happy about anything when someone just died and someone else among us was a murderer? Once my back calmed down and I could move with a crutch the only girls left in the Courtyard were Kotori, Umi, Kanan, Nico and Maki. Once I got up Maki simply told me to be careful not to overexert myself and be careful of how I walked, I thanked her and she walked away. The next thing I did was question the other girls, starting with Umi and Kotori. I asked them what they saw when they got there.

“Well we were just walking down the hall on our way down here and we saw Riko walking to the common hall and she told us that there was good news that you were awake and ok, which got us in a better mood. Then we saw Kanan trying to lift the shutters blocking the center hall, we ran up to her to see what she was doing and she just barked ‘Courtyard’ to us as she lifted it and ducked under, then we ran here and saw Honoka’s body. Once we walked in, the body announcement played.”

Kotori continued to cry the entire time Umi explained what happened.

“Well what happened before that?”

“We had agreed to set our alarms to 3:50 so we could walk down together and stretch a bit, but Honoka didn’t come out and her room said ‘Unoccupied’ so we assumed she was already there, then it goes back to where we saw Riko.”

“Ok, thanks for the help Umi, I’ll figure out who did this, don’t worry, I’ll make sure the person who killed Honoka is punished!”

I walked away and Umi lead Kotori out of the room. Then I asked Kanan what she saw when she came in and if she thought anyone had seemed suspicious.

“Well I saw exactly what we see now, Honoka was laying on the flowers with blood running down her face, there’s nothing for me to add that wouldn’t be redundant, but as for suspicions, Eli seems weird with how she bailed on us saying ‘Nozomi wanted her to stay with her’ and not explaining what that meant, if you’re questioning people you should confront one of those two.”

“Ok, thanks Kanan, it helps to have a lead like that”

“No problem Chika, I’m gonna go look around for a weapon somewhere.”

“Ok, see you around.”

Kanan left leaving the only people in the room as myself and Nico, seeing that she was there I decided to ask her if she noticed anything.

“Of course not, don’t be stupid. When I told you Monokuma said the shutters were soundproof I wasn’t kidding, you couldn’t hear a bomb on the other side of that thing.”

“Alright, thanks anyways, the more things people say the better.”

I walked off and thought about where to go. I decided to try Honoka’s room since she may have left something before the murder took place.

I opened the door and felt the air get 10 times as heavy, I wasn’t sure what it was and swore it was the weight of her death, but it turned out her dehumidifier was off which caused the room to be extremely damp and heavy with water. I tried to turn it on but it didn’t work, I flipped a light and it didn’t work. I called for monokuma and he came out of Honoka’s bathroom.

“Whatcha need, half-honk?”

“Why are the lights and such not working?”

“Wow, ignore the dead joke, I took a while to think of that you know! But the lights and conditioning have been turned off for the sake of electricity, takes a lot of electricity to run a hotel and this one’s no different. Gotta cut what we can.”

Suddenly I heard another voice behind me “What he means is he wants to ruin any potential crime scene by turning up the heat and humidity of the place, so a murder in a bedroom would be really bad for us as the people who didn’t commit it.”

“Wow, everyone’s just out to ruin my fun today aren’t they? Well Miss Nishikino, if that’s your problem I’ll leave it running until after the trial, happy now?”

Suddenly the buzz of the AC and other regulatory devices was heard permeating the room. When I looked down Monokuma was gone, so I walked in and checked the Monokuma File again.

“Maki, you knew Honoka better than me, she was never the type to show up early, right?”

“Not at all, she was constantly late and never early”

“Ok because according to the Monokuma File Honoka was killed around 2 but she wasn’t supposed to meet in the courtyard until 4”

“That’s really odd, she would never show up two hours early for anything, much less exercise.”

“So our next question is why she was so early?”

“It would seem so, but I think I found why so I’ll be going now.”

“Wait what? You’re not telling me?!”

“You’ll never save us all if you can’t take charge and find things on your own, good luck!”

“W-wait, but-”

Maki left the room without looking back. Shouldn’t we be working together? Why would she hide something from me? Was she just testing me like she said, or was she hiding something?

I checked for possible clues, looking in dressers, looking under her bed, between sheets, I couldn’t find anything besides the bag her jacket was in.

Wait, why was her jacket here? Shouldn’t she have had it with her when she was in the Courtyard? Suddenly everything I was focusing on shifted, this bag and its contents seemed like they could be very important. Was this what Maki meant by already seeing what was wrong? But she had said it explained why Honoka showed up early.

Well despite what Maki said, this bag was important. I looked inside and as expected all that was there was a jacket. I heard the door opening and Kotori and Umi came in next. Kotori’s eyes were still red from crying and Umi was still trying to comfort her. They saw me leaning over the bag and looking inside.

“W-What are you d-doing?”

“Hi Kotori, Umi, I’m looking into everything and don’t worry, I’ll figure out who killed Honoka so they get their punishment!”

“Thank you Chika, but, what are you doing now I think was what she meant”

“O-oh, duh, well for some reason Honoka’s bag and jacket are still here. I was trying to think of why it would be here instead of with her in the Courtyard.”

“Is there anything else in the bag?”

“No, just the jacket. Why?”

“She should’ve had a water bottle and towel too, where could they have gone?”

“Hmm, that’s weird, I wonder where they could be?”

As I thought about where the bottle and towel could be I noticed the edge of the strap of the bag was frayed somewhat. I didn’t mention anything but Kotori seemed to notice too. 

“Wait, is it so late already? We should go eat something.”

“What do you mean, it shouldn’t be that late-”

I looked over at the clock next to Honoka’s bed and it already read 12pm. It felt like just a short while since we found Honoka in the Courtyard but apparently she was found 8 hours earlier.

“Huh, well, I want to check Honoka’s body again for something, afterwards I’ll come meet you two in the cafeteria, see you in a few!”

“Yeah, no problem, see you then.”

I walked around to the courtyard to look at the body again and saw Maki crouched over it. She must have heard me coming since she spoke without looking up from what she was doing.

“So you saw the bag? I came to see if I could perform a better autopsy on the body than the one in the Monokuma File, there are clear lines of her being choked with something rope-like, it was just covered by the blood. She wasn’t choked enough to die but she definitely was unconscious before being struck with the murder weapon.”

“Well why didn’t they just finish her by choking her?”

“That’s for you to find out Chika, I’m just here to give you some pushes. By the way, do you happen to have the time?”

“Yeah, it’s about noon, I was about to head to the cafeteria for lunch with Umi and Kotori, do you want to come?”

“No, I think I’ll wait a bit to have my lunch, enjoy the meal.”

“Ok, see you around then.”

I left Maki with the body and went to the cafeteria. The second I walked in I heard Umi call for me from the kitchen.

“What is it?”

“Well we found the bottle and towel, they were next to the sink, Why would Honoka bring these but not her jacket?”

“That’s really weird, also is the bottle wet?”

“I mean typically they are, you kinda fill them with water to drink.”

“No, I mean the outside.” I feel the inside of the bottle and it’s completely dry but the outside felt like it had some water on it and was hastily wiped off. “There’s something wrong with the bottle, I don’t think there was ever any water put inside of it.”

Before Umi or Kotori could respond there was a ding in the corner of the room. We saw the monitor turn on and Monokuma appear on the screen.

“The investigation is complete! All residents please report to the Commons Area for the first of hopefully many Hotel Trials!”

We slowly made our way to the Commons Area with a sense of dread slowing us down and ended up waiting for Eli and Nozomi who came in last.

“Well, now that everyone is here, let’s get started!”

As Monokuma uttered the final syllable of his statement, a grate closed over the door and the entire room vibrated. I wasn’t sure if we were going up or down but the room began to move. It moved faster and faster until it felt like we weren’t even moving anymore and stopped so suddenly that I almost fell over. The grate covering the door lifted and Dia was the first to open the door and walk though.

Inside was a circle of 18 stands, each with a name. The one directly across the circle from where we came out had a wooden pole and a picture of Honoka with a massive cross over her. It was the final proof that she was in fact dead, and somebody in that circle had killed her. My stand was closest to the door and the stands seems so go in the same order as our bedrooms. Next to me were You and Eli, everyone was across from the girl of the same year and attribute.

“Ok, You all ready for the brain busting, skull bashing, cranium cratering trial of the death of Honoka Kousaka? Well too bad, Let the trial commence!” Monokuma saying that the trial was starting made it seem like he was done talking, but he kept going before anyone else could speak. “Let’s start with a brief explanation about the trial. Your votes will be the deciding factor of the trials outcome. If you can figure out whodunnit then only they will be punished, but if you choose wrong… I’m going to punish everyone besides the blackened, and they will be allowed to leave the Hotel! Well, I’m gonna sit back and enjoy the show, so why don’t you all get started!”

It was time to begin, the trial that would either cause the death of 16 more of us, or cause whoever killed Honoka to be revealed. 17 girls, 17 suspects, 17 sources of doubt, this is what life was to become in the Hotel of Despair.

 

**_TRIAL START_ **

 

Kanan: Well clearly it was Eli, she’s the one who killed Honoka.

Nico: Ok, that’s decided, let’s vote.

Eli: W-What? Why would you say that?

Kanan: Well you were the one who ditched us when we planned to meet at the Courtyard

You had just decided to go for a different reason.

Hanamaru: Wait, hold on, what does that have to do with anything? What does it matter that she didn’t go? 

**Nozomi had asked her to stay with her** so doesn’t she have an alibi zura?

Kanan: Nobody has an alibi, the murder was at 2 in the morning.

**Anybody could have gone to the Courtyard** at that time

Chika: No! That’s wrong!

 

Kanan: What do you mean that’s wrong? Anyone could have gone to the Courtyard at 2am, there’s nothing stopping anyone.

Chika: There are six people with undeniable alibis, you, myself, You, Riko, Nico, and Maki. The six of us were trapped in the center hallway until you and Riko left at 3:45, which means none of us 6 could have possibly been at the scene of the crime.

Kanan: Chika, please, that’s entirely irrelevant, what does the six of us having alibis have to do with Eli not being the killer?

Chika: Absolutely nothing, but that makes it far from an irrelevant point

Nico: So you’re saying Eli can’t be the killer?

Chika: Of course she isn’t, now why don’t we talk about what Nozomi and Eli were doing to prove that fact instead of pointing random accusations like a bunch of five year olds?

 

Eli: Nozomi told me she wanted to check something when we left the Commons Area

Nozomi: I was checking a few fortunes to see what could possibly happen

Eli’s said that she should drop whatever plans she had made for the next day 

And  **I asked her to stay with me**

Kanan: That doesn’t mean anything

**She could have snuck out while you slept**

Chika: No, that’s wrong!

 

Kanan: What’s wrong with that? Eli could easily leave the room while Nozomi slept, kill Honoka in the Courtyard, and get back to Nozomi’s room before anyone woke up.”

Chika: No she couldn’t, our rooms can’t be opened without the Monobook of the person who is living in that room

Rin: Well what’s to stop Eli from just taking Nozomi’s Monobook?

Monokuma: C’mon you’re boring the old bear, do something exciting, here, I’ll speed you along and add another rule. Stealing Monobooks from a living resident is prohibited. Eli didn’t steal Nozomi’s Monobook, now get onto something exciting, like the weapon!

Maki: Well you heard Monokuma, let’s talk about the weapon.

 

Maki: So we know it was a  **Blunt Object**

Hanamaru: And it was only  **one blow** that killed her zura

Dia: But the weapon was  **never found** , we don’t know what it was

Chika: That’s not right!

 

Dia: Wait you figured out the weapon?

Chika: Well I have a pretty good idea at the very least

Riko: Well what was it?

{It was a blunt object, it must have been big enough and hard enough to kill someone instantly.}

Chika: It was Honoka’s own water bottle

Yoshiko: Huh?

Chika: Her bottle was found along with her towel in the Kitchen. There was no sign of water ever being inside it but the outside was wet and felt like someone had hastily wiped it. Don’t you think that maybe it was wet because it was covered in blood?

Kanan: That’s absurd, who could kill someone with a simple water bottle?

Umi: It wasn’t a normal water bottle. This bottle was made of metal, it should have been plenty strong enough to kill someone

 

Rin: I’m sure I could knock someone out with a metal bottle like that

Mari: So then, Honoka died when she had her skull broken by the bottle  **hitting her on the head**

Yoshiko: But  **wouldn’t the bottle dent?** ”

Chika: Not quite!

 

Chika: There’s a way to hit someone with a bottle without denting it.

Yoshiko: What do you mean? There’s no way to just make it not dent.

Chika: Indeed there is, Umi, you’re probably about average strength compare to everyone else here, why don’t you try taking the lid and putting it on as tight as you can, make sure no air flow can happen

Umi: Ok, what’s the point of this?

Chika: Ok now take this tangerine that Hanamaru gave me yesterday, I want you to thrust the bottle straight down and smash it.

Umi smashed the tangerine, the chunks of it went everywhere… but the bottle was undamaged.

Mari: What? How is the bottle so sturdy?

Maki: Allow me to explain, since the air couldn’t flow, you would have to strike with enough force to overcome the air pressure inside the bottle on top of the sturdiness of the bottle in order to dent it. So if the killer knew to close it tightly, they could get the kill without making the weapon seem conspicuous.

Nico: Ok, well if we all agree on the weapon, let’s talk about something else already

 

Maki: How about we talk about where Honoka was killed

Kanan: Are you an idiot?

**It’s right in the Monokuma File,** she died in the Courtyard

Chika: That’s not right!

 

Chika: The Monokuma File doesn’t say that she died in the Courtyard, it says her body was found there

Kanan: What does it matter, she was killed in the same place she was found. Dead bodies can’t move themselves.

Chika: That's not always true, Honoka was not found in the same place she died.

 

Kanan: How could she have been killed and found in two different places?

Yoshiko: Obviously **I** **reanimated her** using my powers as a fallen angel and I made her walk to the Courtyard!

Kotori: Or maybe she  **crawled there to escape her killer?**

You: What if she was  **carried?**

Chika: Of course!

 

Chika: That’s the only explanation! Honoka had to have been carried after she died.

Kotori: Why couldn’t anything else have happened, couldn’t she crawl there with her final breaths?

Maki: No Kotori, she died instantly, there was no way for her to crawl.

Umi: So the killer didn’t want us to know the murder location? Why?

Maki: I feel like that’s something that I can explain.

Chika: Well Maki, the floor is yours.

 

Maki: I’ll start off with a question

Why was Honoka able to  **die at 2am**

She would have had to be awake for anyone to get into her room or her to leave

So why was she awake at 2am or earlier?

Ruby: Maybe she had to  **use the bathroom?**

Hanayo: What if she was  **getting something to eat?**

Riko: Maybe she **thought it already was 4?**

Chika: That’s it!

 

Riko: Wait that was right?

Maki: That’s exactly right, she must have thought it was 4 even though it was only 2.

Nozomi: How would she get the time wrong though?

{Something that made it seem like it was later in the day than it was, it had to be…}

Chika: Umi, Kotori, about what time do you think it is?

Umi: Well it was about noon when we were called down so maybe about 12:30?

Chika: And where did you see that time?

Kotori: The clock in Honoka’s room.

Chika: Maru, you always have a watch with you, what time is it?

Hanamaru: 10:30am zura.

Chika: So, do you know what this means?

Nico: Umi and Kotori don’t know how to tell time?

Chika: No, it means the clock in Honoka’s room is 2 hours ahead.

Kanan: How’s that possible?

Monokuma: Well I’ll tell you this, all the clocks were set correctly when you got here so don’t look at me!

Chika: So what this means is that the killer was able to set Honoka’s clock ahead so her alarm would go off two hours early.

You: But how could anyone do that without Honoka seeing them?

Chika: It’s simple, they didn’t need to worry about that, they would have been alone.

You: So what, we need to figure out who had time alone in Honoka’s room?

Maki: Exactly, any ideas?

{Umi looked unsettled, like she was starting to realize something. All eyes turned to her and she didn’t seem like she was paying attention to anything.}

Ruby: D-Do you have any ideas, Umi?

Umi: I, I think I know who the only one with time alone in Honoka’s room could have been.

Mari: So you know who the killer is?!

Umi: No.

Chika: But you just-

Umi: NO, THEY AREN’T THE KILLER, THEY CAN’T DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS, IT’S NOT THEM, THEY DIDN’T DO IT!

{Umi was freaking out, she didn’t seem willing to calm down, she kept repeating the same things over and over.}

Chika: Umi, anyone could kill here, it’s how life in this Hotel is going to be.

Umi: NO, IT’S NOT HER, KOTORI WOULDN’T DO IT.

{Umi clutched her mouth, realizing she just spelt out her other childhood friend’s doom.}

Nozomi: So it was Kotori, she was the only one who was ever alone in Honoka’s room?

Umi: NO, THERE’S NO WAY SHE COULD HAVE DONE IT, UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW SHE DID IT SHE COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT!

{I guess it’s time to figure out the rest.}

 

Maki: I guess the next thing to figure out, is how Kotori-

Umi: IT WASN’T HER, SHE DIDN’T KILL HER

Maki: Ahem, how the killer, got into Honoka’s room

Rin: Why did she have to get into Honoka’s room?

Maki: Because that’s where  **Honoka was killed**

Chika: Exactly!

 

Eli: Wait, how was she killed in her room?

Chika: Simple, first she was incapacitated and then the killer grabbed s omething strong and bashed her skull in, killing her instantly.

Maki: Did you figure out how she was incapacitated, Chika?

{It was the second of Maki’s secrets, the first was the clock, but how did the killer get Honoka to be unable to move while she was killed?}

Chika: She was strangled, the killer used the strap of Honoka’s bag to choke her.

Hanayo: How do you know that?

Chika: The strap to the bag was frayed on the edges, the same way a rope would be if you were to strangle someone that way.

Rin: So the killer choked her, bashed in her skull, and took her to the Courtyard? Why not just choke her fully and leave her there?

Chika: Because she wanted to give as few people an alibi as possible, Honoka would only let two people into her room at 4 in the morning. The two she planned to meet up with that morning in the first place.

Kanan: So the only people who could have been there after Eli and I canceled were…

Chika: It was Kotori or Umi, and we know Kotori was the one with an opportunity to change the clock.

Nico: Wait, how do we know Umi’s not trying to direct attention, how do we know she wasn’t the one to kill Honoka?

Chika: Well if the clock was changed when I think it was, it should have been shortly before You stabbed me, did anyone see Honoka and Umi around that time?

Rin: That was about 6:30 last night, Kayo-chin and I were in the Cafeteria eating dinner together and I’m pretty sure I saw Honoka and Umi go to the kitchen and come out with a lot of bread

Chika: Are you sure Kotori wasn’t there?

Hanayo: No, it was definitely just Umi and Honoka.

Chika: So that’s when Kotori changed the time, when Umi and Honoka left to get bread she set the time to about 8:30 and went back to what she was doing.

Umi: IT WASN’T HER, KOTORI IS INNOCENT, IT WAS ELI, IT WAS KANAN, IT WAS CHIKA, IT WASN’T KOTORI, SHE’S TOO NICE TO DO THIS-

{Umi was still screaming but we knew who the killer was.}

Chika: Shall I go over everything that happened just so we know for an undeniable fact it was her?

Maki: If you would please

 

 

Chika: Ok, so it started when Umi and Honoka left the killer alone in Honoka’s room to get bread for Honoka. The killer took the time to push Honoka’s clock forward two hours. While this happened I was with You, and then she stabbed me in the back due to her high running emotions. She called for help and the killer came out alongside Maki, Hanamaru, and Yoshiko. The killer played along with the rest of the day until she went back to her room to go to sleep, she set her own alarm 2 hours early so she could meet Honoka when she woke up. When the killer woke up she got ready to go and went to see Honoka so they could walk together, or so Honoka thought. The killer knocking is what got Honoka up as she had a reputation of sleeping through alarms and so she wasn't changed into her jacket yet. The killer and Honoka talked for some time, but then the killer sprang into action. She grabbed the bag that had Honoka’s jogging stuff in it and strangled her to the point of unconsciousness. Then she tightened the bottle and killed Honoka with a single blow to the head. Before the blood flew too heavily she grabbed Honoka by the arms and either carried or dragged her to the Courtyard. Once she was there she realized she left a ton of evidence in Honoka’s room, so she ran back to try to clean up. She grabbed the bottle and towel and ran to the kitchen to clean the blood off of it, but before she cleaned it fully she saw it was nearly 3:50, the time she was supposed to meet Umi, so she quickly wiped the bottle and ran back to her room to change.  Her hastiness and lack of time was what caused her to be found out, quite the ironic twist of fate since she killed one of the clumsiest girls here. The killer was you, Kotori Minami!”

 

Kotori and Umi looked utterly horrified, both on the edge of tears, both with a cold, dead, look in their eyes.

Monokuma: Ok! Well you seem done so why don’t we end this thing? It’s voting time!

{Everyone selected who they thought was the killer. But the vote felt more like a formality than anything else. It was sad, killing your closest childhood friend.}

Monokuma: Well, the votes are in, and the residents have voted that the guilty party is!

{Monokuma paused for effect even though we all knew the result.}

Monokuma: Kotori Minami! The blackened has been found, so only she will be punished!

 

**_TRIAL END_ **

 

Umi began to completely break down as Kotori’s verdict was given. She had lost both her closest childhood friends in the span of only about 6 hours, she was completely alone now.

Monokuma pulled out a little hammer, like a judge’s gavel and a red button rose up in front of him. Once the button met his level, he smashed it with the hammer. Suddenly a part of the wall blasted open and a rope wrapped itself around Kotori, dragging her backwards. She was pulled back until she was stuck, tied to a post in the middle of a field. Then a bird flew down and landed on her arm. Then another bird. And another. Birds kept flying down from seemingly nowhere. And then it all began. The birds all began to peck at her at the same time. They kept pecking and pecking and the sound was awful, you could feel her screams shaking in your bones, until, they stopped. The birds had all suddenly stopped at once. We couldn’t see anything, the blanket of birds was too thick, until they flew away. Nothing was left. Not a trace that the girl, Kotori Minami, had ever existed. All that remained, was the knowledge that she had killed her best friend, and that anyone else could do the same. She never explained herself. She never tried to fight for herself. She never asked for Monokuma to wait. She never cried during the trial. She just let herself go. They won’t all be that easy. In the future, more of us will die, more of us will become murderers, and when they do, they'll fight, and I will be the one to defeat them. I promised Death, I promised You, I promised Honoka, I will find every killer that shows up until the end of this god forsaken game that Monokuma has created. And I will expose their crimes.

 

**_Chapter 1: End_ **


End file.
